Free-to-play

Free-to-play, also known as F2P, is the free version of Old School RuneScape where no payment to Jagex is required to play. Players who play the free version are known as "Free players", "F2Pers", or "Non-members". This is in contrast to members, who pay a fee for access to a much larger map and a multitude of skills, items, quests, and activities that are unavailable to free-to-play users.

Free-to-play users can gain access to membership for free through their in-game activities by purchasing membership bonds for coins on the Grand Exchange.

Free-to-play content

While free-to-play accounts have many limitations that members do not, free to play still contains many hours' worth of free and accessible gameplay.

Skills

Free-to-play accounts have access to 15 skills, with a maximum total level of 1493^[1]. Levels in members-only skills do not count towards entry into 500 Total Level and 750 Total Level free-to-play worlds, making the true requirements 509 and 759, respectively.

The skills are:

Melee skills: Attack, Strength and Defence (and Hitpoints)
Ranged
Magic with limited access to standard spells
- Strike, bolt and elemental blast spells plus Crumble Undead
- Confuse, Weaken, Curse and Bind spells
- Level 1, 2, 3, and 4 enchantments (limited to amulets for free-to-play)
- Home, Varrock, Lumbridge and Falador Teleports
- Telekinetic Grab
- Tele Block
- Bones to Bananas, Low Level Alchemy, High Level Alchemy, Monster Inspect, and Superheat Item
Prayers are available up to level 45 Mystic Might.
- The 1^st floor^[UK]2^nd floor^[US] of the Edgeville Monastery becomes available at level 31.
Runecraft elemental, mind and body runes
- Pouches and the Abyss are not available to F2P, but tiaras are.
Mining and Smithing
- Access to metals from bronze to rune
Crafting
- Ball of wool
- Pottery: pots, pie dishes and bowls
- Soft leather items and hardleather body (the Coif is uncraftable in F2P but still obtainable through other players or the Champion's Guild shop)
- Silver: holy symbols and tiaras
- Gold, sapphire, emerald, ruby and diamond rings, necklaces and amulets
Fishing and Cooking
- Available fish are: shrimp, anchovies, sardine, herring, trout, salmon, pike, tuna, lobster and swordfish. Guppy, cavefish, and tetra can be fished after completion of Below Ice Mountain.
- Cooked meat and cooked chicken
- Redberry, meat and apple pie
- Plain pizza, meat pizza and anchovy pizza
- Cake and chocolate cake
- Wine
Woodcutting and Firemaking
- Trees, oak trees, willow trees, maple trees, and yew trees
- Canoe stations along the River Lum.

^ This includes 9 levels from members-only skills, which are locked at level 1.

Transportation

Running as a form of transportation depletes run energy quickly due to the inability to train Agility. Free-to-play transportation done in an efficient manner is limited to teleportation, Minigame Teleport, canoes, items like the chronicle, and some NPCs. When running, lower weight will slow the speed that run energy depletes. The chronicle is a useful early game item for fast access to the Champions' Guild, just south of Varrock, and also close to a canoe station. An axe and 12 Woodcutting are required for creating the first tier of canoe. To go to the Ferox Enclave in the Wilderness, 57 Woodcutting and an axe are required, leaving the Ferox Enclave only requires 12 Woodcutting and an axe. Alternatively, players can use the minigame teleport to Clan Wars, which has a 20 minute cooldown. The Ferox Enclave has a bank, a canoe station, Pool of Refreshment to restore Prayer points, Hitpoints, run energy, and all other skill levels. Home Teleport can be used once every 30 minutes, and does not share a cooldown timer with the minigames teleport. At 37 Magic, players will unlock the Falador Teleport, the last free-to-play teleport available.

Equipment

Although there are a great quantity of items unavailable to free players, they can still use most melee equipment up to rune armour (40 attack and defence), including god-affiliated armours. Likewise players can use ranged equipment up to green dragonhide armour (40 ranged and defence) and maple shortbows. Magic equipment is very limited but includes wizard robes and hats. Prayer gear include Monk's robes and the Holy symbol. The best overall amulet is the amulet of power, and the only useful ring is the ring of forging. The equipment with the highest bonuses for each combat-style is listed on this page.

Melee equipment

Basic weapons and armour made of bronze, iron, steel, black, mithril, adamant and rune, but some specifics like metal gloves, halberds and metal boots are not included.
Melee decorative armour from the Castle Wars minigame with bonuses equivalent to steel, mithril, and adamant equipment. Despite the regular metal boots being unavailable in the free-to-play worlds, decorative boots can be bought and worn by all players. Importantly, decorative boots (gold) provide the highest melee defence bonuses as well as a small melee strength bonus.
Additional notable items include hill giant club, barronite mace, mooleta, ham joint, and shaman mask.

Ranged equipment

Ranging gear includes leather armour, studded leather armour and green dragonhide.
Normal, oak, willow, and maple bows are available with ammunition up to adamant arrows.
Crossbows and phoenix crossbows can be used with normal bronze bolts.

Magic equipment

Magic armour is limited to blue and black wizard robes and Zamorak monk robes, Amulet of magic and staves are limited to the four elemental staves, Bryophyta's staff, Magic staff, basic staff, and Skull sceptre.

Prayer equipment

Prayer items include: Holy symbol, Monk's robes, Zamorak monk robes, Priest gown and Shade robes.

Potions

The only potions available in free-to-play are energy potion, antipoison, and strength potion, all obtainable from the Grand Exchange or the Apothecary. Strength potions are an economical way to train melee combat stats, so it's recommended to use them.

Food

Foods are consumables that restore Hitpoints. The highest healing food in a single bite is a swordfish at 14, the highest healing per inventory slot is an anchovy pizza at 18, 9 Hitpoints in 2 bites. There are sometimes better foods in terms of price per healing, so be sure to check the food page.

Monsters

Free-to-play contains less variety of monsters than pay-to-play, though most monsters are optimal for the first fifty or so combat levels of the game. While many monsters are found in the overworld, such as rats, bears, unicorns, and goblins, many monsters with more valuable drops are found during quests, in the wilderness, or in dungeons. Additionally, some monsters have restricted drop tables compared to their P2P counterparts, and some monsters exist in F2P areas that are only visible on members worlds.

Some of the dungeons available, or partially available in free-to-play are:

Edgeville Dungeon (except the section that is in the Wilderness)
Varrock Sewers (excluding Scurrius)
Asgarnian Ice Dungeon (except the Skeletal Wyvern and Royal Titans areas)
Dwarven Mine and Mining Guild
Crandor and Karamja Dungeon
Melzar's Maze
Wizard's Tower Basement
Draynor Sewers
Stronghold of Security
Scrubfoot's Cave
Corsair Cove Dungeon (excluding Myth's Guild areas, which require membership and completion of Dragon Slayer II)
Ruins of Camdozaal (after Below Ice Mountain)

There are 3 free bosses with broadcast loot and kill counters - Obor, Bryophyta, and Brutus.

Obor can be found in his lair in the Edgeville Dungeon after obtaining a giant key from a hill giant.
Bryophyta can be found in her lair in the Varrock Sewers after obtaining a mossy key from a moss giant.
Brutus can be found in the Lumbridge cow field after completing the quest The Ides of Milk.

Other notable higher level monsters include ankous, lesser demons, greater demons, ogress shamans, ogress warriors, and the quest boss, Elvarg.

Quests

There are 24 free-to-play quests with a total of 46 available quest points. Several major questlines begin in F2P, including the desert, morytania, and dragonkin storylines, and many free quests are prerequisites for later members quests, meaning their completion in the early game is helpful.

With 32 quest points, the Champions' Guild becomes available, along with the ability to start the Dragon Slayer I quest.

Minigames

Free players have access to the following minigames:

Castle Wars: the rewards are limited to the melee decorative armours, cloaks, hoods and banners.
Last Man Standing: competitive mode is disabled. Some rewards such as the adamant arrows or swift blade can be bought and used on the free-to-play worlds, but the points cannot be earned.
Clan Wars: Accessible through Ferox Enclave, though several maps are unavailable.
Emir's Arena: restricted to the non-competitive legacy mode roughly resembling the removed Duel Arena without the possibility to stake coins or items.
Games Zone: Located in the southwest corner of the Grand Exchange, players can challenge each other to various games, similar to the Burthrope Games Room. These games are also available in the Blue Moon Inn, Rising Sun Inn, and several members locations.
Sled Racing: Though not technically a minigame, the cave near goblin village can be a fun diversion from normal gameplay, though no rewards are offered.

Limitations

While the free game offers plenty of things to do, there are some important limitations on free accounts vs members accounts.

Restrictions for newly created characters

An Update added several restrictions to newly created Free-to-play characters.

Newly created characters cannot:

Receive beginner clue uniques.
Drop items for other players to pick up. They can still pick up items dropped by others.
Give away items in a trade. They can still receive items.
Log in to PvP worlds.
Create Sell offers for commonly botted items on the Grand Exchange.
Add items to the Party Chest in the Party Room in Falador.

Additionally, if a newly created character is killed by another player, the amount of noted items that the other player receives as loot are capped at 20 notes per item.

These restrictions can be removed by meeting all of the following requirements:

Playing over 20 hours.
Earning 10 quest points.
Reaching a total level of 100.

Purchasing membership will remove all restrictions as well.

Additional Restrictions

Limited Bank Size

Free players are limited to 400 bank spaces in which to store items, with up to 460 after setting up a Bank PIN (adds 20 additional bank spaces), Authenticator (adds 20 additional bank spaces) and having a linked Jagex Account (adds 20 additional bank spaces). Additional 360 slots in blocks of 40 can be bought at increasingly higher prices for a total of 888,000,000, bringing the maximum total available space to up to 820.

Grand Exchange Offer Slot Limitation

Free players are limited to 3 Grand Exchange offer slots. Members can access all 6.

Membership Bonds

Old school bonds can be purchased with real-world cash or with in-game coins, and can be redeemed in-game for membership playtime. It is possible to make enough money in-game to play membership content without having to pay any real-world money.

Comparison to F2P areas in the past

The current F2P accessible areas on the surface of Old School RuneScape currently closely resemble that of the early to mid era of RuneScape HD, with some added content that never existed in the original RuneScape game.

Since its inception, areas such as the Corsair Cove or Ruins of Camdozaal have been added. The Edgeville smelting furnace and Castle Wars have also been made F2P.

Members items and effects that work in F2P

Certain items or effects attainable in members will still function in free-to-play, adding benefit to membership, even if occasional. These are:

The faster run energy restoration and slower run energy dissipation while running from the Agility skill.
The Skill Cape emote can be performed if a Cape of Accomplishment is worn.
The ammunition-saving effect of Dizana's quiver still applies if worn.
The charge saving ability of Ghommal's lucky penny still applies if worn.
The Aranea boots still allow players to pass through webs if worn.
The steel key ring still works in place of a weapon store key or a maze key, provided those keys have been previously added to the ring. This substitution does NOT apply for the brass key, however.
The ring of visibility and the ring of shadows still allow mysterious ghosts from Curse of the Empty Lord to be seen, provided the NPCs are located in free-to-play accessible areas.
The 10% damage and accuracy bonus of the Smoke battlestaff, Mystic smoke staff and Twinflame staff still apply in free-to-play, although the rune saving and autocast functionality do not. The double hitsplat functionality of the Twinflame staff is also disabled.
The maximum number of charges of the Skull sceptre and increased Bone fragments yield from using a chisel on its components is affected by how much of the Varrock Diary the player completed during their time as a member.
The Crafting cape, as well as the max cape and its variants, will allow entry to the Crafting guild in place of a brown or golden apron.
- The Cooking cape, varrock armour, and max cape will not allow entry to the Cooks' guild in place of a regular or golden chef's hat.
The Runecraft cape, but not the max cape, can be used to access Runecraft altars in place of a talisman or imbued tiara.
The Zamorak robe top and Zamorak robe legs will allow entry to the 1^st floor^[UK]2^nd floor^[US] of the Chaos Temple (Asgarnia) in place of Zamorak monk top and Zamorak monk bottom, respectively.
Managing Miscellania will continue to function without a membership, however the gathered resources and gold inside the coffer can only be collected as a member.
Experience gained in free-to-play counts towards the required 100,000 weekly to participate in the Tears of Guthix minigame.

History

Free-to-play in Old School RuneScape was released permanently on the 19th of February 2015. Before this, a two-week free-to-play trial was available for the new accounts.

Prior to the permanent release of free-to-play mode, "F2p-style" worlds were released on the 9th of May, 2013. These worlds required an active membership, but allowed members to play without the members' features, and was particularly demanded for Wilderness clan wars.

Jagex has also operated Open Weekends, such as on October 31st 2013 and June 8th 2017, where any RuneScape accounts could access the Old School RuneScape members worlds.

Changes

Date	Changes
2 April 2020 (Update)	Several restrictions were added for newly created Free-to-play characters.